Charles Duguid was a Scottish-born medical practitioner, social reformer, Presbyterian lay leader and Aboriginal rights campaigner who lived in Adelaide, South Australia for most of his adult life, and recorded his experience working among the Aboriginal Australians in a number of books.
31 Facts About Charles Duguid
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Charles Duguid founded the Ernabella mission station in the far north of South Australia.
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Charles Duguid was born at Eglinton Street in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, the son of Charles Duguid, a teacher, and Jane Snodgrass Kinnier, daughter of Robert S Kinnier, a surgeon, sister of Captain Douglas Reid Kinnier.
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Charles Duguid attended Ardrossan Academy, where his father was Headmaster between 1882 and 1889, and the High School in Glasgow, before studying medicine at the University of Glasgow, where he gained MA in 1905 and MBChB in 1909.
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Charles Duguid met his future wife, Irene Isabella Young, aboard, and they became engaged and decided to live in Australia.
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In February 1917, during World War I, Charles Duguid sailed for Egypt as a captain in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, as part of the First Australian Imperial Force.
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Charles Duguid first worked in the Middle East, treating casualties in the Australian Light Horse, and then on a hospital ship before leaving the service in October 1917.
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Charles Duguid wrote two books about his experiences, before returning to Scotland in 1919 for post-graduate study and to earn his surgical fellowship.
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Charles Duguid set up a GP practice and worked as a surgeon at the Memorial Hospital, North Adelaide.
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The family, now with son Charles, moved to Britain for a while for Duguid to undertake further medical studies, but his first wife Irene died on the return journey.
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Also in 1930, Charles Duguid was elected a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
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Charles Duguid had two children, Andrew and Rosemary, with Phyllis.
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Charles Duguid lived with the family until 1950 when he was sent to Roper River in the Northern Territory in order to benefit by growing up in an Aboriginal community.
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Charles Duguid retired from his surgical and general medical practice in 1956, but later developed an interest in geriatric medicine.
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Charles Duguid was appalled at the way Aboriginal people were treated there and by their poor living conditions.
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Charles Duguid visited Pastor Friedrich Albrecht and met Albert Namatjira, with whom he became friends, at Hermannsburg Mission.
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In 1937, Charles Duguid helped to found Ernabella Mission in the Musgrave Ranges of South Australia.
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Charles Duguid lectured and spoke in the United Kingdom as well as Australia and New Zealand about the conditions of the Australian Aboriginal people.
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Charles Duguid was active in several organisations concerned with the advancement of Aboriginal rights, such as the Victorian Council for Aboriginal Rights, which was founded at a meeting in Melbourne on 16 March 1951, addressed by Charles Duguid, and the Association for the Protection of Native Races, relating to the Northern Territory.
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Charles Duguid was involved with the Anti-Slavery Society, which in 1909 merged with the Aborigines' Protection Society.
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Charles Duguid was appointed a founding member of the South Australian Government's Aborigines Protection Board in 1940, after the Aborigines Act Amendment Act 1939 created this entity, which was "charged with the duty of controlling and promoting the welfare" of Aboriginal people.
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Concerned about the impact of the rocket range on the inhabitants of the Central Australian reserves, Charles Duguid criticised the scheme at public meetings in Adelaide and, with Donald Thomson, in Melbourne led the 1947 campaign against the rocket-testing program.
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Charles Duguid worked hard to inform the public of the harmful effect that this program would have on those people still living traditionally nearby.
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Charles Duguid resigned from the Aborigines Protection Board when it approved the proposal, but as a result of the protests a patrol officer, Walter MacDougall, was appointed at Woomera.
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Charles Duguid garnered some support and submitted a petition to Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce, who delegated an investigation by Queensland's Protector of Aboriginals, John William Bleakley.
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The League under Charles Duguid's leadership continued to emphasise the ability and rights of Aboriginal people to govern themselves and retain their culture, and it was during this time that he established Ernabella mission on the edge of the Central Aborigines Reserve.
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Charles Duguid was outraged, and this and the need for a hostel to house Aboriginal people in the city drove the public meeting which he arranged in the Adelaide Town Hall on 31 August 1953, which was addressed by five Aboriginal people speaking of their personal experiences of discrimination.
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In 1998, the AALSA Committee said in the newsletter that the society, dating back to the time of Charles Duguid, had always had a strong commitment to education and human rights for Aboriginal people, and that it would continue in this tradition, focusing on land rights, language maintenance and for recognition and respect for Aboriginal culture as a "vital component of Australian society".
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Charles Duguid helped to found the Australian branch of the English-Speaking Union, and was chairman from 1932 to 1935.
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Charles Duguid was involved in some way with the following organisations at different times:.
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Charles Duguid died on 5 December 1986 at Kent Town, Adelaide, at the age of 102.